Melissa Lou Etheridge (born May 29, 1961) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist.[5] Her self-titled debut album Melissa Etheridge was released in 1988 and became an underground success. The album peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200, and its lead single, "Bring Me Some Water", garnered Etheridge her first Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female. In 1993, Etheridge won her first Grammy award for her single "Ain't It Heavy" from her third album, Never Enough. Later that year, she released what would become her mainstream breakthrough album, Yes I Am. Its tracks "I'm the Only One" and "Come to My Window" both reached the top 30 in the United States, and the latter earned Etheridge her second Grammy award. Yes I Am peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200, and spent 138 weeks on the chart,[6] earning a RIAA certification of 6x Platinum,[7] her largest to date.

Etheridge attended David Brewer School, which is still located at 17th and Osage Streets. She graduated in 1979 from Leavenworth High School (LHS) at 10th Avenue and Halderman. She was a member of the first "Power and Life" musical/dance group at LHS. Her childhood home was at 1902 Miami Street.[citation needed]

Etheridge's interest in music began early; she picked up her first guitar at 8. She began to play in all-men country music groups throughout her teenage years, until she moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music.[citation needed]

While at Berklee, Etheridge played the club circuit around Boston. After three semesters, Etheridge decided to drop out of Berklee and head to Los Angeles to attempt a career in music.[3] Etheridge was discovered in a bar called Vermie's in Pasadena, CA. She had made some friends on a women's soccer team and those new friends came to see her play. One of the women was Karla Leopold, whose husband, Bill Leopold, was a manager in the music business. Karla convinced Bill to see her perform live. He was impressed, and has remained a pivotal part of Etheridge's career ever since.[12] This, in addition to her gigs in lesbian bars around Los Angeles, led to her discovery by Island Records chief Chris Blackwell. She received a publishing deal to write songs for movies including the 1986 movie Weeds.[13]

After an unreleased first effort that was rejected by Island Records as being too polished and glossy, she completed her stripped-down self-titled debut in just four days. Her eponymous debut album Melissa Etheridge, released in 1988, was an underground hit, and the single, "Bring Me Some Water", a hit on radio, was nominated for a Grammy.[13]

At the time of the album's release, it was not generally known that Etheridge was a lesbian. While on the road promoting the album, she paused in Memphis, Tennessee, to be interviewed for the syndicated radio program Pulsebeat—Voice of the Heartland, explaining the intensity of her music by saying: "People think I'm really sad—or really angry. But my songs are written about the conflicts I have...I have no anger toward anyone else."[14] She invited the radio syndication producer to attend her concert that night. He did and was surprised to find himself one of the few men in attendance.[15]

Brave and Crazy followed the same musical formula as her eponymous debut garnering a Grammy nomination. The album peaked at #22 on the Billboard charts (equal to her first album). Etheridge then went on the road, like one of her musical influences, Bruce Springsteen, and built a loyal fan base.[16] Etheridge has covered his songs "Thunder Road" and "Born to Run" during live shows.[citation needed]

In 1992, Etheridge released her third album, Never Enough. Similar to her prior two albums, Never Enough didn't reach the top of the charts peaking at #21 but gave Etheridge her first Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female for her single "Ain't It Heavy". Never Enough was considered a more personal and mature album from Etheridge at that time. With rumors circulating around her sexuality (Etheridge was not out yet at this point), the album seemed to inadvertently address these rumors.[17]

In 1992, Etheridge established a performing arts scholarship at Leavenworth High School in honor of her father. She said her father used to "spend his weekends driving me to Kansas City and all points around there so I could play in bands. I was underage so I couldn't have gone without him."[citation needed]

On September 21, 1993, after having come out publicly as a lesbian earlier in the year, Etheridge released Yes I Am.[18] The album would become her mainstream breakthrough album.[18] Co-produced with Hugh Padgham, Yes I Am spent 138 weeks on the Billboard 200 charts and peaked at #15 and scored mainstream hits "Come to My Window" and her only Billboard Top 10 single "I'm the Only One", which also hit #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. Sales-wise, Yes I Am earned a RIAA certification of 6× Platinum[19] making it her biggest-selling album to date.

Etheridge earned her second Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female for her single "Come to My Window", based on an unsettling scene in the classic box office smash Pavarotti film, "Yes, Giorgio". She also garnered two additional nominations in the Best Rock Song category for "I'm the Only One" and "Come to My Window", losing to Bruce Springsteen's "Streets of Philadelphia".[citation needed]

In 1993, Etheridge boycotted playing shows in Colorado over its passage of Amendment 2.[16]

In a visit to Leavenworth in November 1994, she performed a benefit concert for a new park to be built near the high school. A ball field at the park will be named after her father. While she was here, she also donated money to help refurbish the Performing Arts Center in Leavenworth at 401 Delaware.[citation needed]

Also in 1994, she was honored by VH-1 for her work with the AIDS organization L.A. Shanti. During the televised occasion, she highlighted the appearance with a performance of "I'm the Only One" and a duet with Sammy Hagar covering The Rolling Stones' song, "Honky Tonk Woman."[20]

The success of Yes I Am helped increase sales of Etheridge's earlier albums. In 1995, Melissa Etheridge earned a RIAA certification of 2× Platinum,[19] while Never Enough earned a RIAA certification of Platinum.[19]

Etheridge's follow-up to Yes I Am was the moderately successful Your Little Secret. The album was not as well received by critics as Etheridge's prior recordings. Featuring a lead single of the same name, "Your Little Secret" is the highest charting album of Etheridge's career, having reached #6 on the Billboard album charts; however, the album spent only 41 weeks on the chart. The album produced two Top 40 singles "I Want to Come Over" (Billboard #22, RPM #1) and "Nowhere to Go" (Billboard #40) and earned a RIAA certification of 2× Platinum,[19] less than "Yes I Am."

In 1996, Etheridge won an ASCAP Songwriter of the Year award. She also took a lengthy break from the music business to concentrate on her domestic arrangements.[13] She also recorded "Sin Tener A Donde Ir (Nowhere to Go)" for the AIDS benefit album Silencio=Muerte: Red Hot + Latin produced by the Red Hot Organization.

She appeared on Sesame Street, where she sang "Like The Way U Do", as she danced with a big red letter "U".[citation needed]

The year 2001 saw the release of Skin, an album she described as "the closest I've ever come to recording a concept album. It has a beginning, middle and end. It's a journey." Skin garnered generally positive reviews with Metacritic scoring the album 73/100 from 9 reviews.[22] Recorded after her breakup with partner Julie Cypher, Skin was described as "[a] harrowing, clearly autobiographical dissection of a decaying relationship." Despite positive reviews, Skin sold less than 500,000 copies. On the Billboard charts, it peaked at #9 but dropped out of the Top 200 after just 12 weeks. The single "I Want to Be in Love" was nominated for the Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female (losing to Lucinda Williams). The video clip of this song starred Jennifer Aniston.[23]

In 2002, Etheridge released an autobiography entitled "The Truth Is: My Life in Love and Music."[citation needed]

Etheridge began 2004 with the release of her eighth album Lucky on February 10. Etheridge was now in a new relationship with actress Tammy Lynn Michaels, whom she had begun dating in 2001. Lucky performed similarly to Skin, selling fewer than 500,000 copies, peaking on the Billboard charts at #15 and spending 13 weeks on the charts. It also garnered a Grammy nomination for Etheridge's cover of the Greenwheel song "Breathe" for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo (losing to Bruce Springsteen).

In July 2009, Etheridge announced through her website that she and John Shanks would begin recording her 11th studio album the following summer. This was the first time since 1999 Etheridge and Shanks were the only ones involved in the production of a project.

Etheridge also held a private listening party hosted at Michele Clark 's Sunset Sessions in 2010. She debuted her new album Fearless Love at the event held at the Rancho Bernardo Inn where she did a question and answer and played an acoustic set of her new singles in front of convention attendees and about 50 listeners of host station KPRI/San Diego.

Etheridge performed her title track "Fearless Love" from her new album and "Come to My Window" from 1993 on the April 27, 2010, airing of "Dancing With the Stars" on ABC.

Etheridge said in July 2011 that she is writing songs for a musical that her partner, Linda Wallem, is writing.[32]

Etheridge played her first Pride event on Saturday, June 9, 2012 at Pittsburgh Pride's – Pride in the Street. Pride in the Street, made famous by the Queer as Folk series, is a block party that takes place on Liberty Avenue between 9th and 10th Streets.

As of June 2012, Etheridge announced on her radio show that her new CD, called 4th Street Feeling, was finished, and would be released on September 4, 2012. She began touring in support of 4th Street Feeling in October 2012.

On July 1, 2014 she released "Take My Number", the first single from her 13th studio album This Is M.E.. The cover art for the album is a mosaic that includes pictures submitted by fans. Melissa explains the album cover on her official website: "Because my fans are such a huge part of ME, and I wouldn't be ME without YOU, I took photos submitted by my fans and turned it into my album cover." The album was released on September 30, 2014.

On June 9, 2015 she released a live album titled: A Little Bit of Me: Live In L.A.. It was recorded at the closing show of the U.S. leg of her This Is M.E. Tour on December 12, 2014 at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

Etheridge came out publicly as lesbian in January 1993 at the Triangle Ball, a gay celebration of President Bill Clinton's first inauguration.[18] Etheridge supported Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign and since coming out, has been a gay rights activist. She is also an advocate for environmental issues and in 2006, she toured the US and Canada using biodiesel.[34]

Etheridge speaking in 2005

Etheridge had a long-term partnership with Julie Cypher, and their relationship received coverage in The Advocate, when an interview with editor Judy Wieder done in Amsterdam, "The Great Dyke Hope," was released in July 1994. In it, Etheridge answered Wieder's questions about why the couple wanted to have children: "I think one of the many fears people have about homosexuality is around children. I think that the more gay parents raise good, strong, compassionate people, the better the world will be."[35] During this partnership, Cypher gave birth to two children, Bailey Jean, born February 10, 1997, and Beckett, born November 1998, fathered by sperm donor David Crosby. In 2000, Cypher began to reconsider her sexuality and on September 19, 2000, Etheridge and Cypher announced they were separating. In 2001, Etheridge documented her breakup with Cypher and other experiences in her memoir.

In 2002, Etheridge began dating actress Tammy Lynn Michaels.[36] The two had a commitment ceremony on September 20, 2003.[37] In April 2006, Etheridge and Michaels announced that Michaels was pregnant with twins via an anonymous sperm donor. Michaels gave birth to a daughter, Johnnie Rose, and a son, Miller Steven, on October 17, 2006.[citation needed]

In October 2008, five months after the Supreme Court of Californiaoverturned the state's ban on same-sex marriage, Etheridge announced that she and Michaels were planning to marry but were currently "trying to find the right time... to go down and do it".[38] In November 2008, in response to the passing of California's Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage, Etheridge announced that she would not pay her state taxes as an act of civil disobedience.[39] On April 15, 2010 Etheridge and Michaels announced they had separated.[40] In May 2012 it was announced that their two-year child support battle had been settled.[41]

In October 2004, Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent chemotherapy.[citation needed] In October 2005, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Etheridge appeared on Dateline NBC with Michaels to discuss her struggle with cancer. By the time of the interview, Etheridge's hair had grown back after being lost during chemotherapy. She said that her partner had been very supportive during her illness. Etheridge also discussed using medicinal marijuana while she was receiving the chemotherapy.[42] She said that the drug improved her mood and increased her appetite. In a June 15, 2009 interview with Anderson Cooper, Etheridge mentioned that she still uses marijuana to lessen the effects of acid reflux or in extremely stressful situations. Marijuana is legal in the state of California.

Etheridge supported Barack Obama's decision to have Pastor Rick Warren speak at his 2009 Presidential inauguration, believing that he can sponsor dialogue to bridge the gap between gay and straight Christians. She stated in her column at The Huffington Post that "Sure, there are plenty of hateful people who will always hold on to their bigotry like a child to a blanket. But there are also good people out there, Christian and otherwise, that are beginning to listen."[43]

In 2013, Etheridge called Angelina Jolie's choice to have a double mastectomy to avoid breast cancer a "fearful" and not "brave" choice. Etheridge told the Washington Blade in an interview that "my belief is that cancer comes from inside you and so much of it has to do with the environment of your body...It's the stress that will turn that gene on or not...I really encourage people to go a lot longer and further before coming to that conclusion."[44] According to Andrea Geduld, the director of the Breast Health Resource Center at Mt. Sinai Hospital, she told KMBZ.com that Etheridge's comments were out of line and that she finds Etheridge's criticism of Jolie puzzling, given that Jolie's choice to have a double mastectomy couldn't have been an easy one, "we wouldn't criticize someone for wearing a seatbelt to reduce the risk of dying in an accident, so I'm not sure why we would criticize someone for having a mastectomy when we know it cuts their risk of getting cancer." Experts also caution that some of Etheridge's statements are not accurate.[45]

Starting in 2014, Etheridge partnered with a California medical marijuana dispensary to make cannabis-infused wine. Etheridge and Greenway Compassionate Relief in Santa Cruz[49] started small, making a few barrels of reds infused with CBD – THC's medical non-high inducing counterpart – that sold quickly. "The vineyards were afraid the white wines would turn green and that no one would want to drink a green wine," Etheridge said. Etheridge has since expanded her selection of No Label wine tinctures to include a Shiraz, a Grenache and eventually a Cabernet.

On May 13, 2006, at Berklee College of Music's 2006 commencement, held at Northeastern University's Matthews Arena, in Boston, Massachusetts, Berklee's president, Roger H. Brown, presented Etheridge with an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree ". Etheridge delivered the commencement address in front of more than 800 graduating students and 4,000 guests.[56]

On September 27, 2011, Etheridge received the honor of having her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Located at 6901 Hollywood Boulevard, it is the 2,450th star awarded.

On October 31, 2016, Etheridge hosted the Melissa Etheridge & Friends "Rock-the-Boat" cruise. More than 2,000 passengers joined Etheridge, Joan Jett, the Cains and many other artists and speakers. The ship, Royal Caribbean International's Brilliance of the Seas, departed from Tampa, Florida, then continued to ports in Key West and Cozumel, Mexico, before returning to Tampa, Florida.[57]

1.
Hollywood Walk of Fame
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The Walk of Fame is administered by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and maintained by the self-financing Hollywood Historic Trust. It is a popular tourist destination, with a reported 10 million visitors in 2003, as of 2017, the Walk of Fame comprises over 2,600 stars, spaced at 6-foot intervals. The monuments are coral-pink terrazzo five-point stars rimmed with brass inlaid into a charcoal-colored terrazzo background, in the upper portion of each star field the name of the honoree is inlaid in brass block letters. Below the inscription, in the half of the star field. Approximately 20 new stars are added to the Walk each year, special category stars recognize various contributions by corporate entities, service organizations, and special honorees, and display emblems unique to those honorees. The moons are silver and grey terrazzo circles rimmed in brass on a square pink terrazzo background, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce credits E. M. Stuart, its volunteer president in 1953, with the original idea for creating a Walk of Fame. Stuart reportedly proposed the Walk as a means to maintain the glory of a community whose name means glamor, Harry Sugarman, another Chamber member and president of the Hollywood Improvement Association, receives credit in an independent account. A committee was formed to flesh out the idea, and a firm was retained to develop specific proposals. By 1955 the basic concept and general design had been agreed upon, multiple accounts exist for the origin of the star concept. By another account, the stars were inspired, by Sugarmans drinks menu, which featured celebrity photos framed in gold stars. In February 1956 a prototype was unveiled featuring a caricature of an example honoree inside a star on a brown background. The committees met at the Brown Derby restaurant, and included such prominent names as Cecil B, deMille, Samuel Goldwyn, Jesse L. Lasky, Walt Disney, Hal Roach, Mack Sennett, and Walter Lantz. A requirement stipulated by the audio recording committee specified minimum sales of one million records or 250,000 albums for all music category nominees. The committee soon realized that many important recording artists would be excluded from the Walk by that requirement, as a result, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences was formed for the purpose of creating a separate award system for the music business. The first Grammy Awards were presented in Beverly Hills in 1959, construction of the Walk began in 1958 but two lawsuits delayed completion. The first was filed by local property owners challenging the legality of the $1.25 million tax assessment levied upon them to pay for the Walk, along with new street lighting, in October 1959 the assessment was ruled legal. The second lawsuit, filed by Charles Chaplin, Jr. sought damages for the exclusion of his father, chaplins suit was dismissed in 1960, paving the way for completion of the project. Woodwards name was one of eight drawn at random from the original 1,558, the other seven names were Olive Borden, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedgwick, and Ernest Torrence

2.
Leavenworth, Kansas
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Leavenworth is the largest city in and the county seat of Leavenworth County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 35,251, located on the west bank of the Missouri River 25 mi northwest of Kansas City, Missouri, it is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. The site of Fort Leavenworth, built in 1827, the city known in American history for its role as a key supply base in the settlement of the American West. It is important in nineteenth-century African-American history, during the American Civil War, it was the destination of numerous African-American refugee slaves who escaped from Missouri and other slave states. The city has been notable as the location of several prisons, particularly the United States Disciplinary Barracks and United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth, founded in 1854, was the first city incorporated in the territory of Kansas. The city developed south of Fort Leavenworth, which was established as Cantonment Leavenworth in 1827 by Colonel Henry Leavenworth and its location on the Missouri River made it a destination for refugee African-American slaves seeking freedom from the slave state of Missouri in the antebellum years. Abolition supporters helped them find refuge, in the years before the American Civil War, Leavenworth was a hotbed of anti-slavery and pro-slavery agitation, often leading to open physical confrontations on the street and in public meetings. On April 3,1858, it was in Leavenworth, Kansas that the Leavenworth Constitution for the state of Kansas was adopted, refugee African Americans continued to settle in the city during the war. By 1865 it had attracted nearly one-fifth of the 12,000 blacks in the state, charles Henry Langston was an important African-American leader in Leavenworth and northeast Kansas in the Reconstruction era and afterward. In Kansas, Langston worked for suffrage and the right to sit on juries, testify in court. African Americans gained suffrage in 1870 after passage of the federal 15th constitutional amendment, and the legislature voted for their right to sit on juries in 1874. African Americans continued to migrate to the state after the war, there were a total of 17,108 blacks in Kansas in 1870, with 43,107 in 1880, and 52,003 by 1900. Fort Leavenworth was located outside the city limits until its territory was annexed by the city on April 12,1977, in 2008, an underground series of vaults was found in the city, apparently built during the late 19th century. Leavenworth is located at 39°18′40″N 94°55′21″W at an elevation of 840 feet, the city lies on the west bank of the Missouri River in the Dissected Till Plains region of North Americas Central Lowlands. Four small tributaries of the river flow generally east through the city, from north to south, these are Quarry Creek, Corral Creek, Three Mile Creek, and Five Mile Creek. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 24.06 square miles. Fort Leavenworth occupies the half of the citys area. Leavenworth, along with the rest of Leavenworth County, lies within the Kansas City metropolitan area, Lansing, Kansas, is located to the south

3.
Folk rock
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It has also been influential in those parts of the world with close cultural connections to Britain and gave rise to the genre of folk punk. By the 1980s the genre was in decline in popularity. When English bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s defined themselves as electric folk they were making a distinction with the existing folk rock. Folk rock was what they had already been producing, American or American style singer-songwriter material played on instruments, as undertaken by Bob Dylan. They drew the distinction because they were focusing on indigenous songs, the result of this hybridisation was an exchange of specific features drawn from Traditional music and Rock music. For example, electric folk groups, while using traditional material as their source for lyrics and tunes. In the same year, The Beatles began incorporating overt folk influences into their music, the Beatles and other British Invasion bands, in turn, influenced the Californian band The Byrds, who began playing folk-influenced material and Bob Dylan compositions with rock instrumentation. The Byrds recording of Dylans Mr Tambourine Man was released in April 1965 and reached #1 on the U. S. and UK singles charts, setting off the mid-1960s folk rock movement. The Beatles late 1965 album, Rubber Soul, contained a number of songs clearly influenced by the American folk rock boom, such as Nowhere Man and If I Needed Someone. Folk rock became an important genre among emerging English bands, particularly those in the London club scene towards the end of the 1960s. Like the American revival, it was often overtly left wing in its politics, most important among their responses were the foundation of folk clubs in major towns, starting with London where MacColl began the Ballads and Blues Club in 1953. These clubs were usually urban in location, but the songs sung in them often hearkened back to a rural pre-industrial past, in many ways this was the adoption of abandoned popular music by the middle classes. This meant that there were, by the later 1960s, a group of performers with musical skill and knowledge of a variety of traditional songs. The result was an interpretation of the song A Sailors Life. The rapid expansion of electric folk that followed in the wake of Liege, five Hand Reel a band formed out of the remnants of Spencers Feat proved to be one of the more successful and influential folk rock bands. Releasing 4 albums with Topic/RCA records they were popular in Europe. He then quit that and eventually formed the Albion Country Band, later the Albion Band, a much smaller group of English bands were formed in emulation of existing electric rock bands. Fiddlers Dram were often dismissed as one hit wonders for their single Day Trip to Bangor, most of their career, from that point until they disbanded in 1979, was one of declining profile and sales

4.
Guitar
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The guitar is a musical instrument classified as a fretted string instrument with anywhere from four to 18 strings, usually having six. The sound is projected either acoustically, using a wooden or plastic and wood box, or through electrical amplifier. It is typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the fingers, the guitar is a type of chordophone, traditionally constructed from wood and strung with either gut, nylon or steel strings and distinguished from other chordophones by its construction and tuning. There are three types of modern acoustic guitar, the classical guitar, the steel-string acoustic guitar, and the archtop guitar. The tone of a guitar is produced by the strings vibration, amplified by the hollow body of the guitar. The term finger-picking can also refer to a tradition of folk, blues, bluegrass. The acoustic bass guitar is an instrument that is one octave below a regular guitar. Early amplified guitars employed a body, but a solid wood body was eventually found more suitable during the 1960s and 1970s. As with acoustic guitars, there are a number of types of guitars, including hollowbody guitars, archtop guitars and solid-body guitars. The electric guitar has had a influence on popular culture. The guitar is used in a variety of musical genres worldwide. It is recognized as an instrument in genres such as blues, bluegrass, country, flamenco, folk, jazz, jota, mariachi, metal, punk, reggae, rock, soul. The term is used to refer to a number of chordophones that were developed and used across Europe, beginning in the 12th century and, later, in the Americas. The modern word guitar, and its antecedents, has applied to a wide variety of chordophones since classical times. Many influences are cited as antecedents to the modern guitar, at least two instruments called guitars were in use in Spain by 1200, the guitarra latina and the so-called guitarra morisca. The guitarra morisca had a back, wide fingerboard. The guitarra Latina had a sound hole and a narrower neck. By the 14th century the qualifiers moresca or morisca and latina had been dropped, and it had six courses, lute-like tuning in fourths and a guitar-like body, although early representations reveal an instrument with a sharply cut waist

5.
Piano
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The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented around the year 1700, in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings. The word piano is a form of pianoforte, the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument. The first fortepianos in the 1700s had a sound and smaller dynamic range. An acoustic piano usually has a wooden case surrounding the soundboard and metal strings. Pressing one or more keys on the keyboard causes a padded hammer to strike the strings. The hammer rebounds from the strings, and the continue to vibrate at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a soundboard that amplifies by more efficiently coupling the acoustic energy to the air, when the key is released, a damper stops the strings vibration, ending the sound. Notes can be sustained, even when the keys are released by the fingers and thumbs and this means that the piano can play 88 different pitches, going from the deepest bass range to the highest treble. The black keys are for the accidentals, which are needed to play in all twelve keys, more rarely, some pianos have additional keys. Most notes have three strings, except for the bass that graduates from one to two, the strings are sounded when keys are pressed or struck, and silenced by dampers when the hands are lifted from the keyboard. There are two types of piano, the grand piano and the upright piano. The grand piano is used for Classical solos, chamber music and art song and it is used in jazz. The upright piano, which is compact, is the most popular type, as they are a better size for use in private homes for domestic music-making. During the nineteenth century, music publishers produced many works in arrangements for piano, so that music lovers could play. The piano is widely employed in classical, jazz, traditional and popular music for solo and ensemble performances, accompaniment, with technological advances, amplified electric pianos, electronic pianos, and digital pianos have also been developed. The electric piano became an instrument in the 1960s and 1970s genres of jazz fusion, funk music. The piano was founded on earlier technological innovations in keyboard instruments, pipe organs have been used since Antiquity, and as such, the development of pipe organs enabled instrument builders to learn about creating keyboard mechanisms for sounding pitches

6.
Harmonica
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There are many types of harmonica, including diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, octave, orchestral, and bass versions. A harmonica is played by using the mouth to direct air into or out of one or more holes along a mouthpiece, behind each hole is a chamber containing at least one reed. A harmonica reed is a flat elongated spring typically made of brass, stainless steel, or bronze, when the free end is made to vibrate by the players air, it alternately blocks and unblocks the airway to produce sound. Reeds are pre-tuned to individual pitches, tuning may involve changing a reeds length, the weight near its free end, or the stiffness near its fixed end. Longer, heavier and springier reeds produce deeper, lower sounds, an important technique in performance is bending, causing a drop in pitch by making embouchure adjustments. Such two-reed pitch changes actually involve sound production by the normally silent reed, the basic parts of the harmonica are the comb, reed plates and cover plates. The comb is the body of the instrument, which. The term comb may originate from the similarity between this part of a harmonica and a hair comb, Harmonica combs were traditionally made from wood but now are also made from plastic or metal. Some modern and experimental designs are complex in the way that they direct the air. There is dispute among players about whether comb material affects the tone of a harmonica, among those saying yes are those who are convinced by their ears. Few dispute, however, that comb surface smoothness and air-tightness when mated with the reedplates can greatly affect tone, the main advantage of a particular comb material over another one is its durability. In particular, a comb can absorb moisture from the players breath. This can cause the comb to expand slightly, making the instrument uncomfortable to play, various types of wood and treatments have been devised to reduce the degree of this problem. Much effort is devoted by serious players to restoring wood combs, some players used to soak wooden-combed harmonicas in water to cause a slight expansion, which they intended to make the seal between the comb, reed plates and covers more airtight. Modern wooden-combed harmonicas are less prone to swelling and contracting, players still dip harmonicas in water for the way it affects tone and ease of bending notes. The reed plate is a grouping of several reeds in a single housing, the reeds are usually made of brass, but steel, aluminium and plastic are occasionally used. Individual reeds are usually riveted to the plate, but they may also be welded or screwed in place. Reeds fixed on the side of the reed plate respond to blowing

7.
Mandolin
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A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family and is usually plucked with a plectrum or pick. It commonly has four courses of doubled metal strings tuned in unison, although five, the courses are normally tuned in a succession of perfect fifths. It is the member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello. There are many styles of mandolin, but three are common, the Neapolitan or round-backed mandolin, the mandolin and the flat-backed mandolin. The round-back has a bottom, constructed of strips of wood. The carved-top or arch-top mandolin has a shallower, arched back. The flat-backed mandolin uses thin sheets of wood for the body, each style of instrument has its own sound quality and is associated with particular forms of music. Neapolitan mandolins feature prominently in European classical music and traditional music, carved-top instruments are common in American folk music and bluegrass music. Flat-backed instruments are used in Irish, British and Brazilian folk music. Some modern Brazilian instruments feature a fifth course tuned a fifth lower than the standard fourth course. There has also been a type and an instrument with sixteen-strings. Much of mandolin development revolved around the soundboard, pre-mandolin instruments were quiet instruments, strung with as many as six courses of gut strings, and were plucked with the fingers or with a quill. However, modern instruments are louder—using four courses of metal strings, the modern soundboard is designed to withstand the pressure of metal strings that would break earlier instruments. The soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections, there is usually one or more sound holes in the soundboard, either round, oval, or shaped like a calligraphic f. A round or oval sound hole may be covered or bordered with decorative rosettes or purfling, Mandolins evolved from the lute family in Italy during the 17th and 18th centuries, and the deep bowled mandolin, produced particularly in Naples, became common in the 19th century. Dating to around c.13,000 BC, a painting in the Trois Frères cave in France depicts what some believe is a musical bow. From the musical bow, families of stringed instruments developed, since each string played a note, adding strings added new notes, creating bow harps, harps. In turn, this led to being able to play dyads and chords, another innovation occurred when the bow harp was straightened out and a bridge used to lift the strings off the stick-neck, creating the lute

8.
Drum kit
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A drum kit consists of a mix of drums and idiophones most significantly cymbals but also including the woodblock and cowbell. In the 2000s, some also include electronic instruments and both hybrid and entirely electronic kits are used. If some or all of them are replaced by electronic drums, the drum kit is usually played while seated on a drum stool or throne. The drum kit differs from instruments that can be used to produce pitched melodies or chords, even though drums are often placed musically alongside others that do, such as the piano or guitar. The drum kit is part of the rhythm section used in many types of popular and traditional music styles ranging from rock and pop to blues. Other standard instruments used in the section include the electric bass, electric guitar. Many drummers extend their kits from this pattern, adding more drums, more cymbals. Some performers, such as some rockabilly drummers, use small kits that omit elements from the basic setup, some drum kit players may have other roles in the band, such as providing backup vocals, or less commonly, lead vocals. Thus, in an early 1800s orchestra piece, if the called for bass drum, triangle and cymbals. In the 1840s, percussionists began to experiment with foot pedals as a way to them to play more than one instrument. In the 1860s, percussionists started combining multiple drums into a set, the bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, and other percussion instruments were all played using hand-held drum sticks. Double-drumming was developed to one person to play the bass and snare with sticks. With this approach, the drum was usually played on beats one. This resulted in a swing and dance feel. The drum set was referred to as a trap set. By the 1870s, drummers were using an overhang pedal, most drummers in the 1870s preferred to do double drumming without any pedal to play multiple drums, rather than use an overhang pedal. Companies patented their pedal systems such as Dee Dee Chandler of New Orleans 1904–05, liberating the hands for the first time, this evolution saw the bass drum played with the foot of a standing percussionist. The bass drum became the central piece around which every other percussion instrument would later revolve and it was the golden age of drum building for many famous drum companies, with Ludwig introducing

9.
Janis Joplin
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She died of an accidental drug overdose in 1970, aged 27, after releasing three albums. A fourth album, Pearl, was released a more than three months after her death, reaching number 1 on the charts. Joplin rose to fame in 1967 during an appearance at Monterey Pop Festival, as the singer of the then little-known San Francisco psychedelic rock band Big Brother. After releasing two albums with the band, she left Big Brother to continue as a solo artist with her own backing groups, first the Kozmic Blues Band and she appeared at the Woodstock festival and the Festival Express train tour. Five singles by Joplin went into the Billboard Top 100, including Me and Bobby McGee, which reached number 1 in March 1971. Her most popular include, Piece of My Heart, Cry Baby, Down on Me, Ball n Chain, Summertime, Maybe, and Mercedes Benz. Joplin, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, was known for her performing ability. Audiences and critics alike referred to her presence as electric. Rolling Stone ranked Joplin number 46 on its 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and she remains one of the top-selling musicians in the United States, with Recording Industry Association of America certifications of 15.5 million albums sold in the USA. Janis Lyn Joplin was born in Port Arthur, Texas, on January 19,1943, to Dorothy Bonita East, a registrar at a college, and her husband, Seth Ward Joplin. She had two siblings, Michael and Laura. The family attended the Church of Christ, the Joplins felt that Janis needed more attention than their other children. Primarily a painter while still in school, she first began singing blues and she attended Thomas Jefferson High School, where she was a classmate of Super Bowl winning American football coach Jimmy Johnson. She stated while in school, that she was mostly shunned. Joplin was quoted as saying, I was a misfit, I read, I painted, I thought. As a teen, she became overweight, and her skin broke out so badly she was left deep scars that required dermabrasion. Other kids at school would routinely taunt her and call her names like pig, freak, nigger lover. The campus newspaper, The Daily Texan, ran a profile of her in the issue dated July 27,1962, while at UT she performed with a folk trio called the Waller Creek Boys and frequently socialized with the staff of the campus humor magazine The Texas Ranger

10.
Piece of My Heart
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Piece of My Heart is a romantic love song written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns and originally recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967. The song came to mainstream attention when Big Brother and the Holding Company covered the song in 1968 and had a much bigger hit with it. The song has since been remade by several singers, including Dusty Springfield on her 1968 album Dusty, definitely, with hit versions by Faith Hill in 1994 and by Melissa Etheridge in 2005. In 2004 the Big Brother and the Holding Company version of song was ranked Number 353 on Rolling Stones list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song is included among The Rock and Roll Hall of Fames 500 Songs that Shaped Rock. The original version of Piece of My Heart was recorded by Aretha Franklins older sister Erma in 1967 for producer Bert Berns Shout label, the song reached number 10 on the R&B charts in the U. S. and also peaked at number sixty-two on the U. S. In the UK, the single was re-released in 1992, due to a successful Levis jeans commercial, the song became a bigger pop hit when recorded by Big Brother and the Holding Company in 1968, with lead singer Janis Joplin. The song was taken from the groups album Cheap Thrills, recorded in 1968 and this rendition made it to number twelve on the U. S. pop chart. The songs instrumentation was arranged by Sam Andrew, who performed three distorted, loud guitar solos giving the song a psychedelic touch. Franklin said in an interview that when she first heard Joplins version on the radio, she didnt recognize it because of the vocal arrangement. Noted cultural writer Ellen Willis wrote of the difference, When Franklin sings it, it is a challenge, no matter what you do to me, I will not let you destroy my ability to be human, to love. Joplin seems rather to be saying, surely if I keep taking this, if I keep setting an example of love and forgiveness, surely he has to understand, change, give me back what I have given. In such a way, Joplin used blues conventions not to transcend pain, country artist Faith Hill included the song on her debut album, Take Me as I Am. It was a one hit for her in 1994. Hills version took on a more passive tone coupled with traditional country instrumentation, prior to recording the track, Hill had never heard Janis Joplins rendition. Hills producers refused to allow her to listen to the Joplin version until she had completed her own recording, Hill re-recorded the track for the soundtrack to the TV series King of the Hill, released in 1998. This edgier version can also be found on the 1998 international pressing of her third album and her original version was included in her 2007 greatest hits album The Hits. The lively event reached number thirty-two on the Billboard Hot 100, the performance also signaled Etheridges first public return from her battle with breast cancer, appearing with her head bald from the effects of chemotherapy

11.
India Arie
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India Arie is an American singer-songwriter, actress, musician, and record producer. She has sold over 3.3 million records in the US and 10 million worldwide and she has won four Grammy Awards from her 21 nominations, including Best R&B Album. She was born in Denver, Colorado, the daughter of Joyce and her musical skills were encouraged by both parents in her younger years. Her mother is a singer and is now her stylist. Her father is a former NBA basketball player and she has an older brother named JOn. According to a DNA analysis, she descends from the Mende people of Sierra Leone, the Kru people of Liberia, after her parents divorced, Simpsons mother moved the family to Atlanta, Georgia when she was thirteen. When I started tapping into my own sensitivity, I started to understand people better and it was a direct result of writing songs, she said at the press release of her debut album, Acoustic Soul. Co-founding the Atlanta-based independent music collective Groovement EarthShare, her turn on a locally released compilation led to a second-stage gig at the 1998 Lilith Fair. In 1999, a Universal/Motown music scout signed her and made an introduction to former Motown CEO Kedar Massenburg, Arie released her debut album Acoustic Soul on March 27,2001. The album was met with reviews and commercial success. Acoustic Soul debuted at ten on the U. S. Billboard 200. The album was also certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry, the album was promoted with the release of the lead single Video. Video attained commercial success peaking at forty seven on the US Billboard Hot 100, the albums second single Brown Skin failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, but it became her highest charting single in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 29. Arie performed a duet with rock singer-guitarist John Mellencamp on the song Peaceful World for his 2001 album Cuttin Heads, while Arie and the album were nominated for seven Grammy awards in 2002, they won no awards, losing in five of seven categories to Alicia Keys. She closed the ceremony with a performance of her song Video, Arie performed a duet with jazz singer Cassandra Wilson on the song Just Another Parade for her 2002 album Belly of the Sun. Arie followed the success of her debut on September 24,2002 with the release of Voyage to India and it debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 109,000 copies and topped the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, with the RIAA certifying it Platinum. At the 2003 Grammy Awards, it won Best R&B Album, the song Get It Together was featured on many film soundtracks including Brown Sugar and Shark Tale. On September 12,2005, Arie performed Just 4 2day and she also performed What About the Child, a song that did not air but was made available as a one-dollar Internet download to support child victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

The Walk of Fame at the 6800 block of Hollywood Boulevard, looking eastward. The Dolby Theatre is in the foreground at left. In the upper left quadrant is the famous intersection of Hollywood and Highland.

The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700 …

Image: Grand piano and upright piano

Grand piano by Louis Bas of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, France, 1781. Earliest French grand piano known to survive; includes an inverted wrestplank and action derived from the work of Bartolomeo Cristofori (ca. 1700) with ornately decorated soundboard.

An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006 American documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice …

Theatrical release poster

The Pale Blue Dot, a Voyager 1 photo showing Earth (circled) as a single pixel from 4 billion miles (6.4 billion kilometres) away, is featured in the film. Al Gore points out that all of human history has happened on that tiny pixel, which is our only home.

Gore gives a keynote address on sustainability at SapphireNow 2010 in May 2010